Three images from Orlando

A series of unfortunate events, on top of the cold weather we always have this time of year, has prevented me from getting out and taking pictures.  I've been in a bit of a funk lately and I asked my husband what he thought might be the problem.  "Well, you haven't photographed anything in a while," he said.  But that can't possibly be the issue, could it? In any case, I'm writing this from the Orlando airport en route to birthday celebrations in even-colder Chicago.  But David always drags me around to see fun things so I'm hoping to get plenty of shutter clicks in there, too.  Meanwhile, here are three random images from my travels.  First up - shuttle launch.  The planets (har, get it?) kind of aligned for me to go see Discovery's last launch.  We drove for what seemed forever and got about 5 miles away.  It was pretty seriously neat watching something launch that was headed for space.  I didn't photograph the liftoff but wish I had now.  Lesson learned: just take the damn picture. last Discovery shuttle launch And two more - one in the hotel's bathroom as part of my hotel self-portrait project and another from the Orlando airport (on the way in). b&w self-portrait at buena vista palace resort Orlando airport in black and white On deck for tomorrow: Gatorland!

Florida, the rest

I thought I might do a lot more beach/boardwalk photography while I was at the Naples Grande, but shortly after I finished taking the pictures below, I came down with something of a head cold.  Add this to food poisoning early in January and this horrible tooth that is causing me troubles to seemingly no end, and I have to say it's been a bad year so far for me, health-wise.  I look forward to my body getting back to normal and acting like I am young because I am! In the meantime, here are some images from the Ft. Myers' ArtFest over the weekend.  This is my stepfather with a group of ladies called the Calendar Girls.  They were fun. stepfather with the calendar girls calendar girls dancing Of course I can't pass up the happy doggy photos.  Check out this awesome little guy in this dude's arms. puppies at the artfest fort myers The highlight of the festival was a group of local art students doing chalk drawings.  It took them all day to make these pieces. girl drawing flamingo in chalk chalk hemingway girl doing a chalk drawing Finally, I took a picture of this lady sitting in a beautiful little pool of light behind her stall.  A minute later, she was yelling at me about not photographing her artwork.  Didn't figure it was worth arguing with her. lady sitting behind her art stall And now bonus: my stepfather in an Imperial Guard costume.  His friends are pretty whacky and he's a pretty good sport. elliot in imperial guard outfit I suspect things will continue to be somewhat slow here on the blog as I recover from these various ailments, try to catch up on everything (including exercise!) and go back down to Florida for yet more work.  It's a busy time, really.  Catch you on the flip side!

Naples, beach

Traveling for work for the first time in a while (by plane, anyway), I find myself at a beautiful almost-seaside resort in Naples, Florida.  Unlike the many, many other beach resorts I've visited (I jest), this one isn't right on the beach.  Instead, there is a .6 mile walk on an immaculately-maintained boardwalk through a mangrove... grove.  This is not a problem.  What could be a problem is this: do not feed alligators Or this: macro of crazy spider thing Seriously, what the hell?  That is a spider with spikes!  Is that even allowed? I braved the dangers anyway, and here's some of what I saw. couple walking on boardwalk leaves backlit FYI, I'm counting this as my Photo 11 assignment for now.  If I get something better with water in the next week, I'll update. pelican in a sea of blue tram going down boardwalk in mangrove forest The boardwalk led to a pristine and very quiet beach.  No big waves in the Gulf so it's more of a gentle lapping.  Peaceful, really. pelican and round leaves There are also lots of cool dead things at the beach. dead crab at the beach dead prehistoric-looking thing Finally I've got one just for David.  I think I may have found real live Cesars.  Look and tell me that's not what these are! Cesar quatro, cinco y seis! That's all for now but I'm sure I'll walk that boardwalk a lot while I'm here.  If anyone knows the deal with that spider with spikes, let me know.  Maybe I shouldn't walk down the boardwalk barefoot.